Integrated circuit receiving tubes are often used for the shipping and handling of integrated circuit packages to protect the integrated circuit packages from damage. To date, there are many different types of receiving tubes with different cross-sectional shapes. For example, one common type of receiving tubes has a U-shaped cross-section formed by a protrusion extending along the length of one of its sides and protruding towards the interior of the tube. The protrusion helps to urge the integrated circuit packages against the tube so as to store a plurality of integrated circuit packages along the tube's length.
To maximize packing efficiency, it is good to ensure that the receiving tubes are oriented in the same direction when packing the receiving tubes into respective containers. For instance, the receiving tubes with the U-shaped cross-sections are preferably packed such that the sides with the protrusions face the same direction. This can be achieved manually but manual packing is labour-intensive and is prone to errors.
CN202816894 describes an automatic tube arranging mechanism for arranging integrated circuit receiving tubes. In this prior art, the tube arranging mechanism comprises a separating mechanism, a reverse mechanism provided with a block at its lowest point position, a detection unit and a discharge mechanism. In operation, the separating mechanism receives a single tube and rotates to pass this tube to the reverse mechanism. The detection unit detects the orientation of the tube received by the separating mechanism. If this orientation is the desired orientation, the block of the reverse mechanism moves to allow the tube received by the reverse mechanism to pass through to the discharge mechanism which will then place the tube onto a collecting plate. On the other hand, if the detected orientation is not the desired orientation, the block of the reverse mechanism is kept in place until the reverse mechanism rotates the tube to the desired orientation. After this rotation, the block then moves to allow the tube to pass through to the discharge mechanism.
The prior art tube arranging mechanism described above enables the tube arranging process to be automatic, thereby raising tube arranging efficiency, saving manpower resources and reducing occurrences of equipment accidents and damages to the integrated circuit products. However, this mechanism comprises several components and the cycle time for arranging tubes is rather long.